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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—DECEMBER 1957—PAGE 15
Negro Students Now Make
Of School Enrollment in
WASHINGTON, D.C.
-%Jegro students now comprise
11 71.2 per cent of the total
Washington public school enroll-
m ent. This is a gain over last year
when Negro enrollment was 68
per cent.
Total Washington public school
enrollment reached an all-time
high, 111,114 compared to last
year’s 108,481.
The racial breakdown shows
that white enrollment has de
creased by 2,755 for a total of
32,003.
Negro enrollment is up by 5,388 for
a total of 79,111.
More District schools are on a biracial
basis this year.
All senior high schools, with one ex
ception, include students of both races.
Of the city’s 23 junior high schools, all
but two are mixed racially. Of 122 ele
mentary schools, 11 have all-Negro en
rollments and six have all-white enroll
ments. In several instances, however,
integration consists of the presence of a
single pupil.
TREND CONTINUES
The change in the proportion of white
and Negro pupils continues a trend that
began about 10 years ago and has ac
celerated in the last several years. The
first year in which Negro school children
were in the majority in Washington was
in 1950.
However, in the total Washington
metropolitan area, a racial tabulation
shows that white students outnumber
Negroes more than two to one in area
public schools. If figures for neighboring
Virginia and Maryland counties are in
cluded, the totals stand at 217,814 white
and 94,673 Negro.
The increasing racial imbalance in
Washington public schools was blamed
on “residential patterns” by School Supt.
Hobart M. Corning when he released
the Oct. 18 “peak enrollment” head
count.
gets citation
He elaborated on this when he spoke
before the Washington region, National
Conference of Christians and Jews
which cited him for “outstanding lead
ership in promoting the cause of good
will and understanding,” particularly for
his role in the desegregation of public
schools.
Coming declared the shift in racial
Alabama
(Continued From Page 14)
ehain minutes before air time and the
show was blacked out in the Mont
gomery and South Alabama area.
WSFA-TV produced a film of the
Program and scheduled its showing.
“3 u al time was given Dr. Henry Lyons,
Pastor of Montgomery’s Highland Ave-
ue Baptist church, and Montgomery
once Commissioner Clyde Sellers to
swer. Sellers was critical of the Pres
ents action in Little Rock.
Although white Citizens CouncU lead-
ori an i ^Sclhardt had protested the
gmal showing of the interview in
on gomery, the station said it received
con? r ° teSts ° n re_s h°wing. On the
himj 31 ?’ sta tion employes reported
reds °f calls from interested per-
re-b mqUirin S w hen they might see the
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
jJ^^^higham’s school superintendent,
hair fazer Banks, distributed question-
aski ,eS t0 families in Birmingham
groB \ w ^ et h er they objected to Ne-
lips _ being^admitted to all-white Phil-
an d Woodlawn high schools and
q u vvooaiawn hi
^ymont elementary.
accnr?^ 11 ^ 011 Questionnaires, in
Place anCe w ^h the Alabama school
v eW ment act ’ was the second major de-
st at ^ rnent . hi a Negro challenge of the
ti on S ass ignment provisions. Specula-
iiw:. 1 ® that the challenge, originally
'h'en ic by parents of 13 Negro chil-
v emh ?®N, September, October, No-
'Parria' l en< ^ hi a cour t test of Ala-
v alid t W w hich is similar to the in-
be r ) te d Virginia act (SSN, Novem-
Th
0r igin i' 1 ' 5 *' step was to give four of the
e rs . a t l, 3 children (parents of the oth-
ti°ns f C * rew their petitions) examina-
etc or intelligence, comprehension,
dic.,1 e Hoard of Education has not
iosed the results of the tests.
composition was due not only to a rush
to the suburbs, which has been expe
rienced by other large cities, but also to
a “tremendous migration in of colored
population, much of it from the South.”
In most cities, he continued, the Negro
minority is housed in a few sections,
minimizing the amount of actual deseg
regation, whereas a “general and varied
housing pattern” in Washington has had
a sweeping effect on the schools.
While observing that desegregation of
Washington schools is “complete as of
today,” Corning emphasized that inte
gration is still to be accomplished.
DESEGREGATION-INTEGRATION
“Desegregation is merely the moving
about of people and things,” he said. “We
have accomplished that. Each school is
open to every child living within its
boundaries.
“Integration is a much longer process.
Its success will depend on creation in
the community of the social climate nec
essary for the progress of education.”
Before true integration can be accom
plished, Corning said “home living and
community environment must be im
proved.
“Too many of our children—white
and colored, but especially colored—
live in overcrowded, substandard homes
where the climate of learning does not
exist,” he said. The schools alone can
not overcome this obstacle, he empha
sized.
Coming noted that desegregation
problems have been “more serious here
than in any other city in the United
States.”
CITES ECONOMIC FACTORS
In another analysis of the high con
centration of Negro families here, Dis
trict Commissioner Robert E. McLaugh
lin declared it is caused by “extremely
strong economic factors” and not school
integration.
“These factors were having about the
same effect and producing the same re
in a letter accompanying the ques
tionnaires, Dr. Banks told the white
parents:
“It is recognized that while class
work may be the most important re
quirement in a school, there are many
other school activities which are in
cluded in an educational program.” The
questions follow:
1) If these Negro children should be
admitted to this school would you be
willing for your child to stay there?
2) Would you be willing for your
child to take part in classes? Athletics,
play, recreation? Social affairs? Music
groups, clubs and similar organizations?
3) Do you believe there would be se
rious disorders from the pupils in the
school?
EXPECT DISORDERS?
4) Do you believe there would be
serious disorders from people not con
nected with the school?
5) Do you believe there would be
tension or controversy which would se
riously interfere with the studies of the
pupils?
6) Would you ask that your child be
transferred to another school?
7) If your transfer could not be given,
would you refuse to have him or her
attend the present school?
Dr. Banks requested prompt replies.
POLITICAL ACTIVITY
Early starters for next year’s guber
natorial election are finding segrega
tion an inescapable No. 1 issue.
Former State Sen. Jimmy Faulkner
of Baldwin County, for instance, has
been known as a moderate on racial
matters. He ran second to Gov. James
E. Folsom in the 1954 primary and is
considered among the top contenders
for the nomination next year.
In a speech at Carbon Hill, north
of Birmingham in an area where excite
ment over the race issue has never been
very high because Negro percentages
Up 71.2 p.c.
Washington
suits before integration became effective
in the District,” the president of the
Board of Commissioners stated.
Negroes are attracted to the District,
he said, because of employment possi
bilities, abundance of low-cost housing
and good mass transportation. “The
combination of these economic factors,”
he said, “indicates that the District
would have received by far the largest
part of the Negro population even with
out integration.”
‘CONSISTENT’ PERCENTAGE
He emphasized that the important
point was that Negroes have not come
to the metropolitan area in dispropor
tionate numbers. He said the proportion
of Negroes in the entire area has re
mained “surprisingly consistent” at
about 23 per cent in recent years.
The picture is confused, he said, be
cause “the overwhelming number” of
new Negro families settle in the Dis
trict proper.
Public school enrollment figures for
the Washington metropolitan area now
are as follows:
White Negro Total
District 32,003 79,111 111,114
•Montgomery, Md.. 60,015 3,000 63,015
Prince George’s, Md. 50,087 7,141 57,228
Fairfax, Va 41,118 2,108 43,226
Arlington, Va 21,420 1,540 22,960
Alexandria, Va. ... 11,211 1,773 12,984
Falls Church, Va. . 1,960 0 1,960
Totals 217,814 94,673 312,487
•Montgomery figures are estimates.
GIVES REASONS
Reasons for this, he said, are the city’s
varied housing patterns, the fact that
no major city has as large a percentage
of Negro population, and the fact that
the previously separate Negro and
white school systems were completely
staffed on a racial basis.
Denying that there has been any low
ering of academic standards, Coming,
however, conceded that “too many” are
not living up to the standards set. The
academic lag of many students, he said,
is due to their social and economic back
grounds, their previously inadequate
education and “the fact that many come
from the Deep South.”
“The disparity is not attributable to
inherent differences between the races,”
he asserted.
are low, Faulkner found the greatest
interest of the crowd was in integration.
SURPRISES HIM
This apparently surprised Faulkner
as it did reporters. So great was the
crowd reaction to his remarks on the
segregation issue, he pushed aside his
prepared speech and attacked Eisen
hower, the Supreme Court, etc. He re
peated, to loud applause, his promise
to go to jail to preserve segregation
if necessary.
Faulkner campaign songs incorporate
the segregation question. “Alabama
Jubilee” has been rewritten to include
the words “You can’t learn the ABC’s
with a bayonet in your back.”
The Tuskegee city council rejected
Nov. 12 a petition by some 700 Negroes
to be readmitted to the city.
In effect, the petition requested the
council to repeal the action of the Ala
bama legislature last summer. The leg
islature passed a local bill gerryman
dering almost all of Tuskegee’s 410
Negro voters outside the city limits.
The city was asked to use its cor
porate powers to annex new areas to
reverse the exclusion. The council's
vote, “for the good of Tuskegee,” was a
unanimous rejection.
BUSINESSES BOYCOTTED
Meanwhile, a Negro boycott of Tus
kegee businesses continues. Already
about 10 businesses have perished,
with others expected to follow. Busi
nessmen admit that disaster threatens,
but most of them, according to polls,
support the council. And most of them
apparently favor abolishing the county
of Macon with its heavy (84 per cent)
Negro population, if necessary to main
tain white rule.
Mrs. Dwight Eisenhower, wife of the President, paid a National Education Week
visit to Grant school in the District of Columbia school system. She is shown here
talking with a group of elementary graders and Mrs. Susan Hart, president of the
Grant Home and School Association.
Democratic National Chairman Paul
M. Butler has told southern Democrats
that the Democratic Party “will not pull
back, surrender or in any way with
draw” from its advocacy of civil rights
and school integration everywhere.
He further emphasized that the party
would not compromise on civil rights—
even to forestall a third party bolt.
The Democratic Advisory Council, in
a blast at President Eisenhower for fail
ing to implement more quickly the civil
rights bill, also strongly backed But
ler’s statements. At a press conference
following the council’s strategy session,
Butler said the Democratic national
leadership opened its current series of
regional conferences in the South to
demonstrate that the party “does not
take the South for granted.”
The Democratic Party, he continued,
will not pull back from its position that
the Supreme Court decision desegregat
ing schools is right and should be obeyed
everywhere. “Frankly, there has been
some discussion at the closed sessions
here of a possible third party developing
in the South,” he said. “Let me make
it perfectly plain, the Democratic Party
nationally will not [in any way permit]
a third-party threat to deter it from its
long-held determination to serve the
best interests of all Americans, regard
less of race, color or creed.”
Butler’s statements spurred Democra
tic State Chairman Neville Bennett of
South Carolina to demand that Butler
resign or be fired. Bennett put out what
many interpreted as third-party feelers.
Similarly, Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-S.
C.), who headed the States’ Rights Party
in 1948, also sounded a new third-party
warning and declared Butler “has made
it absolutely clear that he is not inter
ested in the views of the South.”
The Young Democrats, meeting in na
tional convention in Reno, Nev., elected
their first Negro officer, Richard Craw
ford of Chicago, as vice president.
They approved a constitutional
amendment barring “discrimination or
segregation” in any of their chartered
organizations throughout the country.
This now must go before the Democrat
ic National Committee for its approval.
One businessman put it this way:
“Sure, I realize it will mean that I’ll
go broke, but if that is what it takes
to show them that we mean business
then I’m prepared to do just that.
They’ve pushed us as far as they are
going to. They knew how we felt but
they kept on pushing. I don’t think they
thought we would go this far, so I’m
ready to show ’em.”
The Tuskegee Civic Association, a
Negro political group, is under injunc
tion against use of threat of intimida
tion to maintain the boycott. But the in
junction has not improved business.
MODIFIED VERSION
The abolition proposal to be voted on
statewide in a constitutional amendment
election Dec. 17 would not, as originally
proposed by state Sen. Sam Engel-
hardt Jr., erase the county forthwith.
Instead, the modified version endorsed
by the legislature would create a spe
cial committee to study the situation
and recommend details of abolition,
such as new county division lines, etc.
The legislature could then abolish Ma
con without submitting the question
again to voters.
Macon’s white citizens have been re
ported by polls as heavily in favor of
the amendment and hopeful that the
state at large will permit it.
C. G. Gomillion, political science pro
fessor at Tuskegee Institute and presi
dent of the Tuskegee Civic Association,
says that the situation now appears vir
tually “hopeless.”
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’
“We have about reached the point of
no return,” Gomillion said. “We had
hoped that there would be some few
whites who would oppose the kind of
obstructionism which insists that the
Negro has no rights at all. . . . Negroes
feel they don’t rate at all as citizens.
. . . Now many are talking of giving
up trying to be a part of the com
munity. . .
position on civil rights, Gov. Averell
Harriman of New York was asked if
there was any “compromise” with But
ler’s stand.
“Absolutely not,” said Harriman. “Our
position is clear. We will not be deterred
by any threats [of a third-party bolt].”
The Council reaffirmed the party’s
earlier position on Little Rock, which
accused the President of lack of leader
ship and attacked the actions of Arkan
sas Gov. Orval E. Faubus. It also in
structed its staff to make a study to de
termine whether any additional civil
rights legislation is necessary.
RESOLUTION ADOPTED
They adopted a resolution on civil
rights which called for vigorous enforce
ment of laws guaranteeing registration
and voting rights regardless of race,
color or creed.
The resolution called discrimination a
“disgrace” whether in Little Rock, Ark.,
or Levittown, Pa. It opposed Arkansas
Gov. Orval Faubus’ use of National
Guard troops “to prevent the orderly
integration of the public schools of Lit
tle Rock.”
Opposed to the resolution were the
delegations from South Carolina, North
Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Ten
nessee.
Nelson Lancione of Columbus, Ohio,
who campaigned for a strong civil rights
platform, defeated Jack Noles of Ton-
kawa, Okla., for the presidency of the
Young Democratic Clubs of America.
When the National Democratic Ad
visory Council in Washington took its
PRESIDENT CRITICIZED
At the meeting, the President was
criticized for failing to appoint mem
bers of the new Civil Rights Investigat
ing Commission and for delay in nam
ing a special assistant attorney general
in charge of civil rights.
Since then the new Commission has
been named and President Eisenhower
has selected Asst. Atty. Gen. W. Wilson
White to head the Justice Department’s
new civil rights division.
White helped plan administration
moves in the Little Rock crisis. He will
be given a recess appointment and his
nomination will be submitted to the
Senate for confirmation when Congress
returns in January.
It was said that originally the Admin
istration had considered bypassing the
Senate on White’s nomination. White
could have been transferred from his
former post as assistant attorney gen
eral in charge of the Justice Depart
ment’s office of legal counsel to his new
one without Senate confirmation.
This brought forth strong criticism
even before President Eisenhower for
mally announced White’s appointment.
Sen. Thurmond charged that “the pur-
(See DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
Page 16)
Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Army chief
of staff, was snubbed by a Birmingham
group which had earlier sought him to
be a Veterans Day speaker Nov. 11.
Raymond Weeks, director of a Bir
mingham committee which had invited
Taylor to speak there, wired Taylor
that his group was “greatly embar
rassed” but had reached the regretful
decision “to release you from your ob
ligation” to speak in Birmingham.
Weeks’ telegram mentioned “unfor
tunate procedures” which have “stirred
up emotions and prejudices not only
in the South but all over the country.”
The reference was to troops in Little
Rock and Taylor’s order, subsequently
rescinded by the Secretary of the
Army, for special troop riot training to
handle distubrances of the Little Rock
type.
Later, Gov. James E. Folsom invited
Taylor to be his personal guest on a
hunting trip in south Alabama.
CROSSES BURNED
Violence and cross-burning added to
tension in Alabama during November.
At Lomax, near Clanton, an undeter
mined number of Negroes engaged in a
gun fight with officers on Saturday
night, Nov. 16, only two days after a
series of Klan demonstrations nearby.
The fight began when officers stopped
a motorist on what was described as a
routine license check. Shots were fired
from a nearby Negro house. In the
subsequent gun battle, one Negro was
killed and a deputy sheriff seriously
wounded.
Klansmen said the cross-burnings,
which were to have been statewide,
were scheduled to mark the observance
of the KKK’s having reached a mem
bership of 500,000. # # #